About Us

D & J NARROWBOATS is a small family firm run by David Peatfield, based at Crick, on the Grand Union Canal, Leicester Arm.

As a very experienced residential boat owner David enjoys using his many years of personal experience to advise his customers ensuring that all his installations are fully "user-friendly" as well as pleasing to the eye.

Details of David's work can be found on the pages of this web site, but if you cannot find what you are looking for, please feel free to contact us - David will be happy to assist and will help you move from the planning stage to achieving your goal, be it a full refit or something much more modest.

A Brief History

D & J NARROWBOATS began in essence in 1990.

It was then that David decided he would like to live on his own narrowboat.  Having run his own business providing carpentry, plumbing and general building services since the mid 1970’s he had all the necessary skills at his fingertips, so his natural choice was to fit out his new boat himself.

The layout David designed proved to be extremely practical.  Over time he improved and refined the boat's integral systems, taking advantage of new equipment as it became available and learning a great deal about what works and what doesn't.

David found that a growing proportion of his work was coming from narrowboat owners, by recommendation, ranging from the smallest jobs to full fit-outs.  He also became very much aware that this was now the most enjoyable part of his business.

Relocation to the Midlands finally catalysed what was clearly a natural progression and the business was moved fully over to narrowboat fitting, forming D & J NARROWBOATS, initially based at Kibworth, and later at The Boatshed at Crick Wharf, Northants. 

Although David's original boat was sold in 2001, she has naturally become something of a flag ship to the business since many details of the specification and layout of Acorn, D&J Narrowboats' first new build narrowboat, originated with her.  She represents the very earliest beginnings of D & J NARROWBOATS and we are sure she is still looking after her current owner in style and comfort.

Update

We were very excited to receive the following email in April 2008 after mentioning on our blog that we had passed our original boat on a trip:

"Dear D & J,

A friend sent us a link to your blog of the 5 June 2007, showing your original boat L'Esprit de Liberte, moored at Wheelock - which our daughter owned and was living on at the time! 

She bought the boat from Nantwich marina at the end of 2005 when she (the boat not our daughter) was in a very sad state.  The previous owner had lived on board and seriously neglected her, resulting in our daughter 'picking up a bargain'!  It was very interesting reading about the genesis of the boat and your obvious passion for detail and quality. 

As I mentioned, when our daughter saw the boat it was in a very sorry state, but she saw through the grime and neglect and recognised the 'quality within', something which has been remarked upon by all who have subsequently seen the boat. 

We have ourselves been narrow boating, via shared ownership, for a number of years and our other daughter lives on boat on the K&A, so we also recognised a boat with clearly a lot of thought given to the fit-out and finish.

Our daughter has now moved 'onto the bank' and we have taken over 'Spirit' and are continuing the job of returning her to her former glory.  Most of the work is cosmetic, although, as you yourself remarked in the blog, the paintwork is still in excellent condition and the lace work returning from grey to white!

We are looking forward to exploring further afield with her and may at some point even visit her ‘home port’.

It is good to see that your business is doing well and that people recognise the superior quality of your craft.

Regards

D & S"

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